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Today, Breitbart News had the opportunity to speak exclusively with former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and current president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Dore Gold. Ambassador Gold described the situation on the ground in detail, and suggested that an Israeli ground operation could only be forestalled by a full and complete end to all Hamas rocket attacks, as well as threat of future Hamas rocket attacks.

“Israel’s goal is very simple and actually very limited,” said Gold. “Its goal is to make sure that rocket fire against Israeli civilians comes to a complete halt. Some people think that’s impossible to achieve, but there’s a huge national consensus behind it. We’re not interested in pampering an Arab regime. We’re not interested in replacing Hamas with somebody else. All we’re interested in in stopping attacks on our cities.”

When asked whether the threat of attacks from Hamas could be stopped without a complete destruction of Hamas, Gold answered, “It depends on Hamas. Clearly Israel created an option for itself to pursue a ground campaign in the event that Hamas refuses to agree to a ceasefire.” And Gold said that a temporary ceasefire would not be enough to stop Israel; as he pointed out, “Hamas uses language that doesn’t seem to be terribly promising. It never talks about peace; it talks instead about a hudna [temporary truce until military build-up has been achieved], or a tahadiya [an even weaker ceasefire]. The terms Hamas uses to talk about a cessation of hostilities all describe Hamas holding off until it has enough military power to overturn the agreement it reaches with Israel.”